Vision Statement

We will strive to become a united, effective, adaptive, strategic, relentless, vocal, and visible 21st century organization of by and for all working people in the Middle Tennessee area.

We will work to strengthen our affiliates and deepen our movement to bring greater economic justice to our workplaces, and social justice to our communities.   

We will build solidarity across organizations, industries, jurisdictions, and all lines that are used to divide working people against ourselves.

We will win victories together that would not be possible alone.

There is much that it outside our control. History is outside our control. We have inherited a political and economic landscape in the South that is increasingly hostile to regular working people. There are well-funded political and economic forces, alive and well, that explicitly want to take away the rights, privileges, and power that those who came before us, fought so hard for, and sacrificed so much for. These forces want to divide us and have us fighting each other rather than organize in our own collective self-interest. Our opposition is outside our control.

What is inside our control is how organized we are. There are tens of thousands of union families in the area. There are incredible opportunities inside our control if we can only act together. Our ability to act is called our “capacity”. Capacity is the horse that drives the cart of all victories. Capacity can be measured by the work of staff, volunteers, membership, allies, strategy and sophistication. If we can only find ways to act together, to creatively build our own capacity to act in our own self-interest, we can reshape many of the decisions that impact our lives. The decisions that impact our lives are in the workplace, in our communities, and also in politics. Our own capacity is inside our control.

The greater capacity we build together, the greater the victories we will win.

(Written by Executive Board Member Garrett Stark and adopted by the Central Labor Council of Nashville and Middle Tennessee on December 1,2018)